Glen Rock man attacked by shark in the South Carolina surf

Christian Fairbourne of Glen Rock, a student at the College of Charleston, suffered shark bites to his forearm and thumb while on vacation last week in South Carolina.

A 19-year-old Glen Rock man suffered serious injuries to his arm and hand as he fended off a shark attack in the surf along Isle of Palms, S.C., where he was vacationing with his family.

“I had just ridden in on a wave, and as I was walking back, I saw it [the shark] right before me inside another wave. It was coming right at me and the next thing I knew, the wave had passed and I had been bitten,” said Christian Fairbourne.

He needed 11 stitches to close the wounds on his right forearm and thumb; the shark just missed biting vital nerves in the arm. Fairbourne, who will be a sophomore at the College of Charleston in the fall, had been bodysurfing with his father, Michael, at the time of the incident.

“We were in the water having a good time,” Michael Fairbourne said. “I went in the wave, then he went in the wave. When I came up, I heard splashing and I thought I saw something gray, it looked like Christian was fighting something. Then I heard him yell, and when he raised his arm, all I saw was blood.”

Neither Fairbourne got a good look at the shark and couldn’t tell how big it was. Though South Carolina officials aren’t certain about what type of shark bit the teen, Michael Fairbourne said that a bull shark was caught along the same shore the next day.

Bull sharks, the medium-size cousin of the great white, are known for their aggressiveness and can be found in shallow waters near high-population areas.

Shark attacks in New Jersey are extremely rare with just 15 reported in the last century; the last confirmed attack was in 2006. In 2013 nationwide, there were 47 attacks, with two fatal. So far this year, there have been 6 reported attacks, according to the International Shark Attack File, run out of the University of Florida.

Fairbourne said the incident lasted just a few seconds and that as soon as the shark let go, he immediately applied pressure and made his way to shore on his own, with his father close behind.

“He wasn’t screaming or panicking or anything,” said Michael Fairbourne. “He was such a trouper.”

A man walking on the beach came to Fairbourne’s aid.

“That man saved Christian’s arm when he wrapped it and told him to put it up,” said his mother, Linda. “If he hadn’t, he probably would have lost his fingers or arm.”

The Glen Rock High School graduate was taken to Medical University of South Carolina Hospital at Charleston, where he became “somewhat of a celebrity,” according to his mother.

“None of them had ever seen a shark bite anyone before, and some of them had been working there for more than 20 years,” Fairbourne said.

Two days after Fairbourne was bitten, 50-year-old Steven Robles, a Palos Verdes, Calif., resident, made national news when a video of him being attacked by a shark went viral. The long-distance swimmer was bitten on the side of his rib cage by a great white shark while swimming off the coast of California’s Manhattan Beach. Robles was on his routine weekend swim when he swam into a fishing line and came face-to-face with the predator. A great white was also sited last month by a fisherman a mile off the shore of Long Beach Island.

Fairbourne, who admits to being “very lucky” that his injuries weren’t more serious, was back in knee-deep water the next day. He plans to visit friends in Bradley Beach this weekend and “when it heals I will definitely go back in.”

“I got my bite done with, so what are the chances that it will happen again?” he said.